Italy's prosecco producers in a fizz over thieves stealing their vines

The phenomenal global success of prosecco has thrown up an unexpected threat to the wine producers of northern Italy – thieves are sneaking into their vineyards at night to steal newly-planted vines.

“Dear thief, I bought my vines. It would have been much better if you had bought yours too”

A hand-drawn sign

In an oenological version of cattle-rustling in the American West and sheep stealing in Australia, there has been a spate of thefts amid the rolling hills of Veneto and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, the two regions where the popular sparkling wine is produced.

There is big money at stake – the prosecco sector is booming, with 355 million bottles produced in 2015, compared with 306 million in 2014.

Around 70 per cent of production is sold abroad, with Britain the most important market, taking 35 per cent of all exports, followed by the US and Germany.

The thefts appear to be increasingCredit:
Consorzio Prosecco

With the prosecco market worth more than 1.7 billion euros a year (£1.3 billion), there is a scramble to plant new vineyards to cash in on the world’s thirst for Italy’s finest “frizzante” (fizzy) wine, which is made from the Glera grape variety.

The Consortium for the Protection of Prosecco, the winemakers’ governing body, gave permission this week for another 3,000 hectares to be planted, in addition to the existing 30,000 hectares of vineyard.

The vines are reportedly being stolen to order, with the thieves then selling them onto unscrupulous producers who are setting up new vineyards, often outside the traditional prosecco-producing area of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene in the rolling hills north of Treviso.

Last week, two men were arrested after stealing 1,600 newly-planted vines, worth several thousand euros, from two vineyards near the villages of Pagnano d’Asolo and Monfumo.

The men – one a student and the other a cook - sold them for a paltry 500 euros to a middle-man, who then sold them to a wine estate near the city of Padua. All three were identified and arrested by Carabinieri police less than 24 hours later.

Even Stefano Zanette, the president of the prosecco consortium, has been a victim of theft -around 100 vines were stolen from two of his vineyards.

Stefano Zanette, the president of the prosecco consortiumCredit:
Consorzio Prosecco

One exasperated prosecco producer near the village of Farra di Soligo, who found his vineyard stripped bare of 800 young vines, nailed a hand-drawn sign to a tree: “Dear thief, I bought my vines. It would have been much better if you had bought yours too.”

The thefts, which appear to be increasing, are being investigated by Italian police and the Forestry Corps, an armed unit which deals with crimes in rural areas.

There are dark mutterings among long-standing prosecco producers that the thefts are being carried out by arriviste entrepreneurs trying to break into the sector.

The thefts are being investigated by Italian police and the Forestry CorpsCredit:
Consorzio Prosecco

“Around here the land available for planting grapes is almost all occupied,” said Giuseppe Nardi, the mayor of Farra di Soligo, which lies between the famed wine-producing towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene.

“But in lower parts of Veneto they need thousands of plants because they are only just starting to produce prosecco. They can’t get hold of enough vines so it could be that they are coming up here to take them,” he told La Stampa newspaper.

The thefts were condemned this week by Luca Zaia, the governor of the Veneto region. “People stealing vines are real delinquents,” he said, adding that harvests were being ruined and incomes dented by the brazen thefts.

Some estate owners have resorted to spraying young vines with coloured dye to make them easier to identify if they are stolen. Others are building fences and installing security cameras, but that is an extremely costly option, particularly for larger vineyards.

The vine rustlers have to be quick. “They have a window of eight to 10 days. After that, the plants put down strong roots and if you rip them out of the ground, they often die,” a spokeswoman for the prosecco consortium said.

The scale of the problem should not be exaggerated. “So far the number of vines that have been stolen would barely cover a hectare of vineyard, so as yet it is not a huge phenomenon,” she said. “But it is still deplorable”.